The present applicant innovatively invented a “hand held shower head with filter replacing pre-alarm device” having been already granted an U.S. invent patent in number of U.S. Pat. No. 7,468,127, a mainland China invent patent in number of 584889, a British invent patent in number of GB 2435797 and a Korea invent patent in number of 10-0912738, which are on the record. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the structure of the “hand held shower head with filter replacing pre-alarm device” comprises a shower head 10, a base seat 20, a cover seat 30, a propeller wheel 40 and a signal circuit device 50 such that the base seat 20, the cover seat 30 and the propeller wheel 40 are totally imbedded and affixed in the inner of the shower head 10, wherein:
said shower head 10 has a hollow body and a water inlet 11, which is having screw threads 12 formed thereon, and provided to connect with a filter hand hold 60, in front of the shower head 10 has firmly mounted a cover member 12 by means of a screw 121, and said cover member 12 has a plurality of spray holes 122 to allow the water spray out of the shower head 10, to the rear of the shower head 10 is tightly affixed a LCD display circuit 56, is used in displaying an instruction sent by the microprocessor 51 of the signal circuit device 50 (as shown in FIG. 3);
said base seat 20 has an indented water chamber 21 formed at the bottom surface of, a water inlet channel 22 and an outlet channel 23 are formed at the two sides of the water chamber 21 respectively to be communicable with each other, and a rotation axle 24 downwardly protruded from central area of a top surface of the water chamber 21 of the base seat 20;
said cover seat 30, which is tightly affixed on the bottom side of the base seat 20 with the bottom surface of the base seat 20 abutting to a top surface of the cover seat 30, has a water inlet 31 formed on a side surface of the cover seat 30 with two ends thereof being corresponding to the inlet channel 22 and the water inlet 11 respectively, a water outlet 32, which is corresponding to the outlet channel 23 and is formed on a top surface of the cover seat 30, a supporting axle 33 is upwardly protruded from a central area of a top side of the cover seat 30, and a threaded hole 341 of central dowel 34 downwardly protruded the opposite side.
said propeller wheel 40, which is a circular body with a plurality of curved propeller blades are extended radically from the circular body to be situated and supported in the water chamber 21 of the base seat 20 in rotatable manner, has two central axial recesses 41 coaxially created at a center of top side and a bottom side of the propeller wheel 40 respectively, a magnetic element 42 embedded on a top side of the propeller wheel 40 so that the rotation axle 24 and the supporting axle 33 are fitted into the two central axial recesses 41 located in the center of the water chamber 21 of the base seat 20 (as shown in FIG. 1); and
said signal circuit device 50 comprises a microprocessor 51, a DC power supply 52 electrically connected to the microprocessor 51, a transducer 53 electrically connected to the microprocessor 51, a reset switch 54 electrically connected to the microprocessor 51, a re-start (rest) switch 55 electrically connected to the microprocessor 51, a LCD display circuit 56 electrically connected to the microprocessor 51, a buzzer 57 electrically connected to the microprocessor 51 and a signal receiver 58, which is closed at the top surface of base seat 20 and corresponding to the magnetic element 42 (as shown in FIG. 1).
The foregoing base seat 20, the cover seat 30 and the propeller wheel 40 are assembled by means of the screws 14 and affixed to the inner of the shower head 10, so that the water inlet 31, the inlet channel 22, the water chamber 21, the outlet 23 and the water outlet 32 define a water flowing passage.
Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 3. In accordance with an operating mode of the present invention, a water supply pipe is connected to the filter handhold 60. Water flow enters the water chamber 21 through the water inlet 31 and inlet channel 22, forcing the propeller wheel 40 to rotate, and flows out through the outlet channel 23, the water outlet 32 and the spray holes 122 of the cover member 12. When the propeller wheel 40 rotates, the magnetic element 42 induces the signal receiver 58 of the signal circuit device 50, so that the signal receiver 58 receives a sensor signal and transmit to the microprocessor 51 via the transducer 53. Such continuous signals are transmitted to the microprocessor 51 and will process sending corresponding signals to the LCD display circuit 56, an accurate quantity of flow can be calculated according to the equation:Quantity of Flow(Q)=Cross Sectional Area(A) times Flow Velocity(V)
Thereby, a user can easily obtain a total statistical volume of water flowing through the filter handhold 60, simply by looking at the LCD display circuit 56.
The total water reading value, that is a total volume of flowing water made by the filtration element 62 of the filter handhold 60, is formatted and input into the microprocessor 51 as a predetermined reference value which is a digital standard reference value showing the service life (critical point) of the respective filtration element. When the total flowing volume value reach to the service life of the filter handhold 60, the microprocessor 51 will sending a signal to the buzzer 57 for advancing a warning alarm to notify that it is the time for the user to replace a new filtration element of the filter handhold 60. Therefore, the user can avoid in consequence of missing replacement timing and still continuously using the malfunctioned filter.
After practical test of the foregoing conventional “hand held shower head with filter replacing pre-alarm device” for a certain period, two issues are emerged though it can achieves the expected effects. The issues are that the power source of the DC power supply 52 in the signal circuit device 50 will gradually run out to disable the measuring and displaying functions; and the DC power supply 52 in the signal circuit device 50 can not be independently replaced because the LCD display circuit 56 is integrated with the shower head 10 as unitary entity so that the DC power supply 52 together with the shower head 10 must be discarded and replaced once the power source of the DC power supply 52 runs out. Thus, it not only causes resource waste but also increase economical expense incurred by frequent replacement of the shower head. Consequently, it becomes a marketing disadvantage due to reluctance in continuously usage of the conventional “hand held shower head with filter replacing pre-alarm device”. Having further researched and studied in painstaking manner by addressing the issues mentioned above, the present inventor eventually works out the present invention by overcoming the issues mentioned above.